As Luck Would Have It

It's really easy to love a movie with Joanna Swisher, Alan Leech, and Ireland. Plus the clothes she obviously bought while in Ireland were beautiful, especially those sweaters. Or are they jumpers in Ireland. The two had genuine chemistry and real eye contact in their scenes, especially while dancing.

As attractive and welcome the fresh faces of the two leads were, this one did not impress. I loved the authentic setting in Ireland as well, but the plot was totally forced. The whole premise was based on a hotel chain wanting to tear down a historic and beautiful castle in order to replace it with a glass, steel, and concrete monstrosity. That is totally bizarre. What traveler to rural Ireland would prefer such an accommodation over a beautiful castle? Not one sane one with any sense or taste. Why would they be visiting Ireland in the first place if not to soak in it's atmosphere, beauty, and history? If you want modern, stay in Dublin. And to think that any representative of the Hotel could lobby for such a notion and still be considered a sympathetic heroine does not fly. Nope. This one did not pass the smell test. If they wanted to copy Leap Year with Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, they should have gone all the way and copied the story line as well.

When you review the movie before it's over.

What a great salute to Ireland!

Hallmark needs to add JoAnna Garcia Swisher to their rotation of actors because she's such a natural on screen. Actually the whole cast are amazing-they give a real feel of the place.

Hope there's a sequel.

First of all Toooooommmmmm!!! If you were a Downton fan then you will be as pleasantly shook as I was at the male lead in this one.

To the review now. It. Was. So. Beautiful. There was depth my friends, there was depth. It wasn't super fluffy and copy and paste like it usually goes with Hallmark romances. There was a story, there was great acting accompanying that story and there were Hollywood meets BBC-y romance vibes in a good heart tugging way. If you are a seasoned Hallmark movie watcher then you have to see this one-in-a-million release and be pleasantly surprised at how it stands out beautifully from the rest. I don't know who penned and directed this, but I want to give them a hug and beg them to do all future Hallmark movies. Never knew Hallmark could! Apparently they can!! Give us more!!!!

I confess that I may be biased because I have enjoyed everything I have seen JoAnna Garcia Swisher do (and this isn't the first time I have seen her kiss a handsome Irish lad in Ireland). She is beautiful, funny and engaging. Together with her fellow lead, Allen Leech, she captured your attention and then together they made the romance believable. It wasn't over acted which was refreshing...and came across as natural.

JoAnna plays a character who goes to Ireland to talk a town council in to selling their castle to be demolished and redeveloped by her development firm into a modern resort to draw tourists to the town. The town, as luck would have it, has a matchmaking festival which she enters because the council doesn't even listen to her pitch due to her not being familiar with their community. As it turns out she is thoughtful, engaged and hard working...she earns the respect of the head of the council...and a shot at a new pitch.

Sweet film, worth watching...especially for JoAnna.